Dominique Ansel brought his lady sous chef Anna McGorman and his charming accent along on a HuffPost Live segment revolving entirely around — you guessed it — the Cronut.

“We were trying to come up with something that was both French and American,” Anna explained as her bossman touted les Americains for being sufficiently open-minded to his high-end pastry creations. But do not try and steal his idea.

“Those are not Cronut shops, actually. We have trademarked the word ‘Cronut’ and we just want to protect our creation,” Ansel says in response to the knock-offs that have sprung up around the country. “I think any respectable chef would not straight copy.”

Oh and for the record, the Cronut Lord denies that people are actually queuing up at 3:30 AM. He says it’s more like 5:30 at the earliest, and if you make it between 6:30 and 7:00am, you’ll probably score a flaky, glazed mouthful of joy.